UT basketball: Picking up the pieces

AUSTIN — After Texas’ 80-68 loss to Kansas at the Erwin Center on Monday — a night that saw the Longhorns suffer their fifth loss in seven games — UT coach Rick Barnes vowed, “We’re going to fix it.”

But how do the Longhorns, who have dropped from No. 1 in the country to a not-so-automatic NCAA tournament team in three weeks, intend to do it?

First of all, Barnes said freshman J’Covan Brown, who led UT with 28 points against KU, is now a starter. Whether he will replace point guard Dogus Balbay or forward Gary Johnson in the lineup is yet to be determined. Johnson made his first start of the season Monday night, replacing guard Justin Mason. Barnes has acknowledged Balbay and Mason — both challenged shooters — cannot play at the same time.

Secondly, Barnes said the biggest key to turning things around is eliminating the team’s carelessness with the ball. Considering that Brown is one of the biggest offenders in that regard, it’s an interesting assessment. But there’s no question UT can’t afford more performances like Monday’s, when they had six assists, 17 turnovers and gave up 16 fast-break points.

And as usual, Dexter Pittman remains the Longhorns’ biggest enigma. Throughout UT’s slump, and even before it, Pittman has been a shell of the player that looked like one of the nation’s best interior forces in November and December. Three points and three rebounds — his stat line against KU — is not worthy of a player UT has tried to build around, but it has become the norm lately.